1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns systems for printing private documents on a shared printer. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system in which private documents are sent to an electronic mailbox and retrieved therefrom by a printer upon entry of identification information into the printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional computing networks are used to share computing resources. Examples of shared resources are file servers and peripherals, such as scanners, facsimile machines and printers. Printers are the most commonly shared of these peripherals.
Printer sharing is common because a single networked printer can usually handle the printing needs of several users. As a result, the single networked printer can be purchased as an alternative to purchasing separate printers for each user. However, the resultant cost savings come at the expense of printing privacy. That is, since conventional systems allow several users to send print jobs to a single printer, these systems must also allow each of the several users to access documents output by the printer. As a result, in order to ensure that no unauthorized persons view a private document, a sender of the document must race to a shared printer to retrieve a hardcopy of the document as soon as it is output from the printer.
Several systems have recently been developed in an attempt to address the foregoing problems. For example, Xerox offers a network printer having locked storage bins to which sensitive documents are delivered after printing. A user enters a security code in order to unlock the bins and retrieve the documents inside. However, additional print jobs cannot be sent to a bin once the bin is full. In addition, a user can only retrieve documents from the particular printer to which he has sent a print job. U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,973, assigned to Ricoh Company, Ltd., also describes a system for delivering a printout to a locked printing bin and for allowing access to the bin upon entry of an appropriate identification code. This system suffers from problems similar to those of the above Xerox system.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is a system for securely printing to a networked printer which allows a large number of print jobs to be delivered to the printer and which allows a document to be securely retrieved from any networked printer.
The present invention addresses the foregoing by providing a printing apparatus which receives an e-mail address, a user ID and a password corresponding to an e-mail account, retrieves a document from the e-mail account, and prints the document. By virtue of this arrangement, a printing apparatus according to the present invention can retrieve and print a document previously stored in a user""s e-mail account. As a result, the document can be printed on any printing apparatus embodying the invention. Moreover, the document can only be accessed by a person knowing each of the e-mail address, user ID and password. In addition, the present invention provides a larger storage space and longer queue time for print jobs than that available in conventional systems.
In another aspect, the present invention is a system to print a document in which an e-mail address is input, the document is sent to an e-mail account corresponding to the input e-mail address, the e-mail address, and a user ID and password corresponding to the e-mail account are input into a printing device, and the document is printed by the printing device.
The foregoing aspect allows a user to send print jobs to an e-mail account and retrieve the print jobs from a printer by entering a user ID and a password. Also, the documents cannot be accessed by a person who does not know the e-mail address, user ID and password corresponding to the e-mail account. This aspect of the invention provides, in addition, a larger storage space and longer queue time for print jobs than that available in conventional systems.
In an additional aspect, a first security code is input along with the e-mail account address, a list of documents stored in the e-mail account is displayed, the list including the document, the document is selected from the list, a second security code is input into the printing device, and it is determined whether the first security code is identical to the second security code. By virtue of the foregoing additional aspect, an extra layer of security is added to the invention. In particular, each document located in the e-mail account is associated with an security code, and the security code must also be input to the printing device before printout of the document.
This brief summary has been provided so that the nature of the invention may be understood quickly. A more complete understanding of the invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof in connection with the attached drawings.